Christian, Hindu wives get half benefit each of late govt servant

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: The High Court of Karnataka has upheld the decision of a Family Court that divided the service benefits of a Telecom department employee equally.

“The Family Court has passed the equitable order of granting 50 per cent of service benefits of late T Nanjundappa in favour of the appellant and remaining 50 per cent in favour of the respondent and on this count also we do not find any error in the finding and the decision of the Family Court calling for interference,” the HC said dismissing a petition by the Hindu wife, which alleged that there was no marriage between her Hindu husband and a Christian woman.

The Hindu wife, who was 33 years of age in 2016, filed an appeal in the High Court against the 2016 order of a Family Court that had divided the service benefits between the two wives. The Christian wife was 61 years of age in 2016.

It was averred that T Nanjundappa was in love with the Christian woman and they started living together as husband and wife in 1983. They have a daughter. In April 1989, they registered their marriage under the provisions of the Special Marriage Act. Nanjundappa died while in service in August 2003 in a road accident.

The Christian wife received a notice to clear his bank loan, which she did. In the meantime in 2001, Nanjundappa is said to have married a Hindu woman with whom he has another daughter. The Hindu wife obtained a succession certificate from the civil court after Nanjundappa ’s death. The Christian wife denied Najundappa ever marrying the other woman.

The Family Court set aside the succession certificate issued by the Civil Court and also held that the Christian woman was the legally wedded wife of Nanjundappa based on the certificate of registration. The Hindu wife challenged this in the HC. The High Court bench of Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Vijaykumar A Patil in their recent judgement upheld the Family Court order.

It said, “The Family Court on meticulous appreciation of evidence on record has recorded a finding that the respondent has proved that she is the legally wedded wife of late T Najundappa and the appellant has failed to disprove the same. The aforesaid findings do not suffer from any infirmity warranting interference by this Court in the present appeal.”

The HC said that as per the Indian Evidence Act, there is presumption that the marriage certificate is genuine as it is issued by the competent authority and is a public document. Also, the mother and sister of Nanjundappa had provided evidence that he and the Christian woman were living together as husband and wife.